| An Exploding Marketplace | | | | Ecommerce web hosting provides a business web |
| The world has become a busy place, with trillions of | | | | site with special tools for doing business over the |
| dollars changing hands each year in business | | | | internet. Features such as extended data storage and |
| transactions and consumer spending. While the | | | | monthly data transfer capacities, security certificates, |
| customary method of doing business in person or via | | | | and complex data bases are required to make a |
| telephone is still in use, the growing trend is to | | | | business web site run smoothly. |
| conduct ecommerce transactions on-line, with the use | | | | Higher data capacities allow for the sheer size of a |
| of computers. | | | | business site, and the enormous exchange of |
| On-line revenues from ecommerce in the U.S. alone | | | | information involved. Security certificates make the |
| have grown from 24.1 billion in 2000, to over 100 | | | | site safe for monetary transactions, and databases |
| billion in 2005. And, the number of on-line users in the | | | | such as SQL keep track of individual accounts, |
| U.S. has exploded from 124.7 million in 2000 to over | | | | purchases, inventory, or any transaction. |
| 200 million. | | | | The ecommerce shopping cart allows the customer |
| Canada's combined private and public online sales | | | | to select items and then purchase them at a virtual |
| have also experienced a boom. Up almost 40% in | | | | check out stand, usually with several payment |
| 2003 from a 27% jump in 2002; public sector | | | | method options, such as credit cards and PayPal. |
| enterprises realized nearly $511.4 million in sales. | | | | Businesses require skilled personnel to implement and |
| Along with the skyrocketing use of the virtual | | | | monitor these special tools for marketing goods or |
| marketplace comes the need for special tools, such | | | | services on-line. There are many ecommerce web |
| as ecommerce web hosting, ecommerce software, | | | | hosting firms that meet these and other special |
| and the ecommerce shopping cart. | | | | needs for a successful ecommerce solution. |
| How Does it All Work? | | | | |